Competing in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being rapidly deployed in the economy and revolutionizing the way today’s businesses compete and operate. By putting AI and data at the center of their capabilities, companies are redefining how they create, capture, and share value. This course will equip students with the knowledge of new AI-based business strategies and operating models. You will learn about the emergence of AI, data pipelines, network effects, and ethical challenges that come with leveraging massive amounts of data and sophisticated analytics. Through global case studies on market leaders and innovative startups in diverse industries, the course will provide opportunities to synthesize your reflections into applicable insights and develop a strategy that can help your business succeed in today’s data-driven environments.

Taught by Marco Iansiti (HBS), Karim Lakhani (HBS), Antonio Moreno (HBS), and Feng Zhu (HBS)

Foundations of Quantitative Analysis

This course is an introduction to using statistical approaches to solve business problems. It introduces statistical concepts via a management perspective and places special emphasis on developing the skills and instincts needed to make sound decisions and become an effective manager. The main components of the course include methods for describing and summarizing data, the fundamentals of probability, the basics of study design and data collection, and statistical inference. Data analyses, simulation, and design issues are implemented in the statistical computing package R run within the RStudio interface.

Taught by Mark Glickman (FAS), Mike Parzen (HBS), and Kevin Rader (FAS)

Leadership, Innovation, and Change

An emphasis on data analytics and algorithms at the center of an enterprise also means that leaders will have to drive both innovation and large-scale organizational change. This course will focus on the leader’s role in both executing their current strategy better than their competitors as well as their role in shaping strategic innovation. We employ the congruence model that links strategy to execution through alignment of culture, people, tasks, structure, and executive leadership. We also explore the inertial characteristics of aligned organizations and the strategic importance of driving innovation streams. We explore building ambidextrous organizations, organizations that can both exploit their existing strategy as well as explore into new strategic domains. Because ambidexterity requires leaders that can deal with punctuated change and paradoxical strategies, our course concludes with what we know about ambidextrous leadership and leading large system change.

Taught by Michael Tushman (HBS) and Rory McDonald (HBS)

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI before you take this course.

In-Person Immersion at Harvard Business School Campus in Boston

During these in-person experiences, you will meet face to face with your classmates, network with faculty and industry leaders during nightly events, tour the Harvard campus, and participate in hands-on guided learning exercises. You will also use the HBS case method, formulating solutions to real-world business scenarios as a way to understand relevant challenges in the industry. Recent topics of discussion have included reputation systems, data sharing and security, and organizational leadership. Immersion dates are subject to change.

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Digital technologies and data analytics are radically changing the operating model of an organization and how it connects to its broader supply chain and ecosystem. This course emphasizes managing product availability, especially in a context of rapid product proliferation, short product life cycles, and global networks of suppliers and customers. Topics examined include inventory management, distribution economics, demand forecasting, and supplier management. The course emphasizes the “general manager’s perspective” in supply chains. Cases in the course illustrate that barriers to integrating supply chains often relate to behavioral issues (e.g., misaligned incentives or change management challenges) and operational execution problems that fall squarely in the domain of the general manager.

Taught by Ryan Buell (HBS), Dennis Campbell (HBS), Kris Ferreira (HBS), Jan Hammond (HBS), and V.G. Narayanan (HBS)

*You must complete Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

Programming and Data Systems

Modern business analytics requires executives and managers to be conversant with programming and data architecture. The aim of this course is to provide participants with the fundamental knowledge and practice needed to appreciate the challenges and opportunities related to developing robust and scalable systems that are at the core of business analytics by emphasizing mastery of high-level concepts and design decisions. Through a mix of technical instruction, discussion of case studies, and weekly programming projects, this course empowers participants to make technological decisions even if not technologists themselves. Topics include cloud computing, networking, privacy, scalability, security, and more, with a particular emphasis on web and mobile technologies. Participants emerge from this course with firsthand appreciation of how it all works and all the more confident in the factors that should guide their decision-making.

Taught by Henry Leitner (SEAS) and David J. Malan (SEAS)

Leadership and People Analytics

People analytics is designed to help practitioners use data to improve people-related decisions. Participants will build hands-on skills to analyze data in ways that complement the frameworks and intuitions they would normally use to guide their managerial actions on people issues. At a deeper level, students in any job, organization, or industry context will sharpen their ability to think critically through the lens of rigorous analytics. Anchored in data, this course will equip participants with an analytic approach to diagnosing the varied forces that influence individual, team, and organizational performance, leading to more effective interventions and actions. While developing analytic skills and trying out tools and techniques, participants will come to appreciate the opportunities, limits, and tensions involved in using data analytics to inform people issues, while simultaneously gaining deeper insight into the substance of the business issues in question.

Taught by Jeff Polzer (HBS)

*You must complete Foundations of Quantitative Analysis, and Leadership, Innovation, and Change before you take this course.

Data-Driven Marketing

Marketing has been revolutionized and forever changed by data analytics. What used to be a qualitative and instinct-driven business function (think Mad Men) has now become a data-driven profession that relies on quantitative insights on how best to optimize ad creation and placement and influence consumer purchase behavior. This course will examine the ways in which marketing has changed and the new skills and capabilities needed to succeed in this function.

Taught by Sunil Gupta (HBS), Ayelet Israeli (HBS), and David Parkes (FAS)

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI, Programming and Data Systems, and Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

Data Science Pipeline and Critical Thinking
Ultimately, business analytics is about using data, analytics, and algorithms to make prescriptive predictions about future events and decisions. This course will take a holistic approach to helping participants understand the key factors involved, from data collection to analysis to prediction and insight. Projects will give students hands-on experience developing and running a data science pipeline to ensure that the correct business predictions are being made. Emphasis will be on merging technical skills with critical thinking to ensure that robust data science pipelines are being created for business benefit.

Taught by Joe Blitzen, Iavor Bojinov, Srikant M. Datar, Mark Glickman, and Hanspeter Pfister

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Programming and Data Systems, and Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

In-Person Immersion at Harvard Business School Campus in Boston

During these in-person experiences, you will meet face to face with your classmates, network with faculty and industry leaders during nightly events, tour the Harvard campus, and participate in hands-on guided learning exercises. You will also use the HBS case method, formulating solutions to real-world business scenarios as a way to understand relevant challenges in the industry. Recent topics of discussion have included reputation systems, data sharing and security, and organizational leadership. Immersion dates are subject to change.

Competing in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being rapidly deployed in the economy and revolutionizing the way today’s businesses compete and operate. By putting AI and data at the center of their capabilities, companies are redefining how they create, capture, and share value. This course will equip students with the knowledge of new AI-based business strategies and operating models. You will learn about the emergence of AI, data pipelines, network effects, and ethical challenges that come with leveraging massive amounts of data and sophisticated analytics. Through global case studies on market leaders and innovative startups in diverse industries, the course will provide opportunities to synthesize your reflections into applicable insights and develop a strategy that can help your business succeed in today’s data-driven environments.

Taught by Marco Iansiti (HBS), Karim Lakhani (HBS), Antonio Moreno (HBS), and Feng Zhu (HBS)

Foundations of Quantitative Analysis

This course is an introduction to using statistical approaches to solve business problems. It introduces statistical concepts via a management perspective and places special emphasis on developing the skills and instincts needed to make sound decisions and become an effective manager. The main components of the course include methods for describing and summarizing data, the fundamentals of probability, the basics of study design and data collection, and statistical inference. Data analyses, simulation, and design issues are implemented in the statistical computing package R run within the RStudio interface.

Taught by Mark Glickman (FAS), Mike Parzen (HBS), and Kevin Rader (FAS)

Leadership, Innovation, and Change

An emphasis on data analytics and algorithms at the center of an enterprise also means that leaders will have to drive both innovation and large-scale organizational change. This course will focus on the leader’s role in both executing their current strategy better than their competitors as well as their role in shaping strategic innovation. We employ the congruence model that links strategy to execution through alignment of culture, people, tasks, structure, and executive leadership. We also explore the inertial characteristics of aligned organizations and the strategic importance of driving innovation streams. We explore building ambidextrous organizations, organizations that can both exploit their existing strategy as well as explore into new strategic domains. Because ambidexterity requires leaders that can deal with punctuated change and paradoxical strategies, our course concludes with what we know about ambidextrous leadership and leading large system change.

Taught by Michael Tushman (HBS) and Rory McDonald (HBS)

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI before you take this course.

In-Person Immersion at Harvard Business School Campus in Boston

During these in-person experiences, you will meet face to face with your classmates, network with faculty and industry leaders during nightly events, tour the Harvard campus, and participate in hands-on guided learning exercises. You will also use the HBS case method, formulating solutions to real-world business scenarios as a way to understand relevant challenges in the industry. Recent topics of discussion have included reputation systems, data sharing and security, and organizational leadership. Immersion dates are subject to change.

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Digital technologies and data analytics are radically changing the operating model of an organization and how it connects to its broader supply chain and ecosystem. This course emphasizes managing product availability, especially in a context of rapid product proliferation, short product life cycles, and global networks of suppliers and customers. Topics examined include inventory management, distribution economics, demand forecasting, and supplier management. The course emphasizes the “general manager’s perspective” in supply chains. Cases in the course illustrate that barriers to integrating supply chains often relate to behavioral issues (e.g., misaligned incentives or change management challenges) and operational execution problems that fall squarely in the domain of the general manager.

Taught by Ryan Buell (HBS), Dennis Campbell (HBS), Kris Ferreira (HBS), Jan Hammond (HBS), and V.G. Narayanan (HBS)

*You must complete Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

Programming and Data Systems

Modern business analytics requires executives and managers to be conversant with programming and data architecture. The aim of this course is to provide participants with the fundamental knowledge and practice needed to appreciate the challenges and opportunities related to developing robust and scalable systems that are at the core of business analytics by emphasizing mastery of high-level concepts and design decisions. Through a mix of technical instruction, discussion of case studies, and weekly programming projects, this course empowers participants to make technological decisions even if not technologists themselves. Topics include cloud computing, networking, privacy, scalability, security, and more, with a particular emphasis on web and mobile technologies. Participants emerge from this course with firsthand appreciation of how it all works and all the more confident in the factors that should guide their decision-making.

Taught by Henry Leitner (SEAS) and David J. Malan (SEAS)

Data-Driven Marketing         

Marketing has been revolutionized and forever changed by data analytics. What used to be a qualitative and instinct-driven business function (think Mad Men) has now become a data-driven profession that relies on quantitative insights on how best to optimize ad creation and placement and influence consumer purchase behavior. This course will examine the ways in which marketing has changed and the new skills and capabilities needed to succeed in this function.

Taught by Sunil Gupta (HBS), Ayelet Israeli (HBS), and David Parkes (FAS)

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI, Programming and Data Systems, and Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

Data Science Pipeline and Critical Thinking

Ultimately, business analytics is about using data, analytics, and algorithms to make prescriptive predictions about future events and decisions. This course will take a holistic approach to helping participants understand the key factors involved, from data collection to analysis to prediction and insight. Projects will give students hands-on experience developing and running a data science pipeline to ensure that the correct business predictions are being made. Emphasis will be on merging technical skills with critical thinking to ensure that robust data science pipelines are being created for business benefit.

Taught by Joe Blitzen, Iavor Bojinov, Srikant M. Datar, Mark Glickman and Hanspeter Pfister

*You must complete Competing in the Age of AI, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Programming and Data Systems, and Foundations of Quantitative Analysis before you take this course.

In-Person Immersion at Harvard Business School Campus in Boston

During these in-person experiences, you will meet face to face with your classmates, network with faculty and industry leaders during nightly events, tour the Harvard campus, and participate in hands-on guided learning exercises. You will also use the HBS case method, formulating solutions to real-world business scenarios as a way to understand relevant challenges in the industry. Recent topics of discussion have included reputation systems, data sharing and security, and organizational leadership. Immersion dates are subject to change.